Gia's Amnesia
by Tigreye33
Summary: First Installment of the Alpha's Path Series. While continuing on the American tour, Alex and Gia are involved in an accident and Gia loses her memory. Can Alex get her to remember before too much changes?
1. Sparring Night

**I do not own Madagascar. Everything belongs to Dreamworks Animation. All I own are my OC's.**

**This story may seem like an Alex*Gia story, but it won't stay that way. If you don't like that, I suggest you turn back now.**

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><p><em>Chapter One: Sparring Night<em>

_Smack!_

Alex fell backward, the left side of his face exploding in pain.

"Get up," Vitaly told him, somewhat amused.

It was nighttime in northern Minnesota. Most of the circus animals were resting and chatting after a long day's hard work, preparing for the performances to come.

"I thought you were gonna take it easy on me," Alex said, wavering as he got up.

"You ask me to teach, I vill teach," Vitaly plainly stated. "Come at me!"

Alex charged at him, aiming a right hook at his head. Vitaly blocked and punched him in the gut, using the distraction to flip him over.

"Aaaah!" Alex screamed, landing hard on his back.

"Is enough for today," Vitaly said, walking by. "Next lesson is after next performance."

Alex rolled over and got up wearily. He suddenly found himself face-to-face with Gia.

"Oh! Gia!" he said, surprised.

"Why are you letting him beat you up?" Gia asked him.

"He's not beating me up," Alex reasoned. "He's teaching me to fight. Evidently, I'm not learning as fast as he's hoped."

Gia rolled her eyes.

"At least you're learning something," she said. "That, and Vitaly finally has a punching bag to knock around every now and then."

Alex laughed weakly.

"You're really not kidding about 'punching bag'," he said, holding the side of his face.

"So, about Seattle," Gia started, "is there anything exciting around there?"

"You mean besides our circus in a couple days?" Alex told her. "There's the Space Needle. It was once the tallest building in the west. People could go up a huge elevator and go up to the observation deck."

"And from there, they could see all of Washington?" Gia asked.

"I think it would have been possible," Alex continued, "if there wasn't all that fog around it and over Seattle."

"Oh," Gia said with a smile. "What else is there?"

"I don't know," Alex told her, shrugging. "Nothing else showed up on postcards."

Gia let out a wild laugh.

"Postcards?" she giggled. "Are you kidding me?"

"What?" Alex protested. "This is as far west as I've ever been in the states! What do you expect?"

Gia struggled to breathe as she kept laughing.

"This is why I fell in love with you in the first place," she told him. "I can almost never walk away from talking with you without a smile!"

Alex put an arm around her and tilted her chin up.

"And I intend to keep it that way," he said.

He leaned in to kiss her, but was interrupted by a startling cry.

"Alex!" Marty shouted. "They're back! Let's get outta here!"

"Crap!" Alex hissed. "Not again! When will they just leave me alone?"

"Hurry!" Gia told him. "Get on the train! We've already packed up, so we should be leaving very soon!"

She and Alex raced for the train. As soon as they were onboard, the train jerked and continued on its westward track.


	2. Another Year

_Chapter Two: Another Year_

Alex woke up when the light shined onto his face. He rolled over to keep the light out of his eyes, but the rocking of the train made him hit his head on the box next to him. He sat up, rubbing the bump on his head.

"I gotta stop doing that," he whispered to himself.

He looked around. Marty, Melman, and Gloria were still asleep.

Alex stood up and walked over to see what kind of scenery they were passing. The sunlight lit up the miles of fields to be a bright green color. A far away lake sparkled with the bright light. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. With all the traveling they'd been doing that night, he figured they were already in Montana.

Alex turned and found himself an inch away from Marty.

"Aah!" he shrieked, flattening himself against the wall and burying his claws into the wood. "Don't do that, Marty!

"Just kidding with you, Alex!" the zebra laughed as Alex pulled his claws free. "Hey, you didn't... forget anything, did you?"

"Forget what?" Alex asked.

They could feel the train slowing down.

"You really don't remember?" Marty asked, a little downcast.

Alex hated to see Marty so depressed.

"I'll probably remember whatever it is a little later," he told him.

Melman and Gloria woke as the train slowed to a stop.

"Morning, guys," Gloria yawned.

"Well, we better get out and help set up," Alex told his friends.

He tried opening the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"It's stuck again!" he growled.

"Other door," Melman said.

The four animals walked to the opposite door and went outside. They went to the back of the train car and jumped over the coupler, although Melman merely had to walk over it.

Marty was the last one to the other side of the train and stopped short. The other circus animals, with the exception of the penguins and chimps, were waiting for him.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" everyone cried.

Marty was shocked. No one had forgotten his birthday.

"You guys were just pretending?" he asked.

"Of course we were!" Alex told him, fixing the door's lock. "We had the door locked from the outside to make it more convincing!"

"And Alice told us it-a was the anniversary of the first-a time you left-a New York!" Stefano cheered. "_Buon Compleanno_!"

He held up a box to Gloria, who took opened it and took a cake out.

"Make a wish, Marty!" the hippo said.

Marty only waited a second before blowing the candle out.

"What did you-a wish for?" Stefano asked.

Marty shrugged.

"I didn't wish for anything!" he told everyone. "I don't think I need anything else, so I didn't bother to wish!"

Everyone cheered, but they were interrupted when the penguins suddenly slid in.

"Hey!" Skipper snapped. "What's going on here? We have a circus to put on! Practice now, celebrate later!"

The animals voiced their complaints as they walked off.

"Spoil sport," Alex muttered under his breath.

Within the hour, the equipment was set up and many of them had started practicing. Alex had started climbing up to the trapeze when he heard a shout.

"Alex!" Gia cried. "Wait for me!"

Alex looked down and saw her begin to climb. He got to the platform and helped her up.

"What will we be doing today?" Gia asked gleefully.

Alex grabbed the first trapeze.

"Well," he began, "I was thinking we could work more on the... wait a minute."

Gia followed his gaze and saw the penguins fiddling with what looked like chemicals and black powder.

"Ay," she breathed. "Not again."

"We probably shouldn't be up here if they're playing with that again," Alex growled.

He and Gia got back to ground level and started toward the penguins.

"Hey! Penguins!" Alex shouted. "Are you guys nuts?!"

Only Skipper turned to face the incoming felines.

"What do you mean by that, fuzz ball?" he barked. "You know we have to save money on something. Dynamite's getting expensive nowadays."

"Says the guy with the golden teeth," Alex growled. "Don't you remember Vitaly saying we're earning more money than even before his accident? We can just keep using dynamite!"

"Not so, fish breath!"

"Hey! You eat fish, too!"

"Boys! Cool it!" Gia shouted. "Skipper, could you just stop experimenting for today, at least? It _is_ the birthday boy you're shooting out of the cannon. We don't want him arriving in Seattle before we get there."

"Fine," Skipper told them. "We'll just settle for using the new explosives to send the seal to Seattle instead."

Alex knew he was joking, but had no other choice but to concede. There was no getting around him.

"Let's go," he told Gia. "We need to find something else to do so we aren't flying off when that thing blows."

"_If_ it blows," Skipper persisted.

"Whatever," Alex growled as he and Gia began walking toward the train.

"Good luck," Gia told Marty and Stefano as the two were walking toward the penguins.

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><p>"Come on, Vitaly!" Alex told the tiger. "You've jumped through rings that were just standing there! What about ones that are moving around? Of course, they'd be at least a little bigger, but-!"<p>

"I continue doing my act, lion," Vitaly growled, annoyed. "I jump through one tiny hoop, lit on fire, and does-not-move!"

"Give it up, Alex," Gia told her boyfriend.

Alex had opened his mouth to continue speaking, but Gia had spoken first and he stopped.

"You know how much he doesn't like change," the jaguar told him. "You got lucky once. Just let him have his act."

"Yeah, well," Alex started, "it was just an idea."

"Hit the dirt!"

The cats turned to look at the penguins, who had all jumped out of sight. They saw the triplets, elephants, and dogs stampeding away.

"Shouldn't we take cover?" Gia asked nervously.

"No," Alex told her. "We're too far away."

"What about projectiles?"

Alex looked like he was preparing to catch something.

"Only two."

"Two?" Gia asked. "What do you mean by... oh -!"

She was interrupted by the blast. Within seconds, Alex caught Marty and Stefano in each of his paws. They had blast marks on their faces.

"But I just-a got-a feeling back in-a my whiskers!" Stefano whimpered.

Alex carefully set down his stunned friends.

Melman and Gloria had just come from the train with small crates of equipment and froze.

"I'll get my office ready," Melman said as he and Gloria set the crates down.

"I'll get some wet towels," Gloria told the others.

Alex helped Marty and Stefano get into the train car as Vitaly stormed off toward the penguins. Shouts could be heard as Melman started treating his injured friends.

"Good thing we don't have any Russian kids working here," Alex told them.

He noticed a large, olive-green case in the corner of the train car.

"Melman," he started, walking toward the case, "what is this?"

Melman turned to see what Alex was talking about.

"That's everything the penguins stole from the vets' office back at the zoo," he said as he continued to help Marty and Stefano. "If the zoo doesn't have animals, why keep the medical supplies, right?"

"Useful," Alex remarked.

"Yeah," Gloria said as she came in. "Now we don't have to _always_ call a vet if someone starts bleeding to death."

She put the wet towels on Marty and Stefano's heads before walking back outside to unpack the equipment she and Melman had brought out.

It didn't take very long for Melman to treat Marty and Stefano and everyone was soon back to practicing for the Seattle performance. Alex climbed up to the platform and grabbed the trapeze bar in front of him. He checked his stance.

"You ready?" Alex called out.

"Ready!" Gia called back from the other platform.

"Go!"

Both cats flew through the air, racing for the center bar. When they were close enough, they leaped for it. Within the blink of an eye, Alex flipped and caught the bar with his legs and caught Gia's outstretched paws. He threw her upward and flipped again, catching the bar with one paw and Gia with the other.

"We did it!" Gia cried.

"At least you didn't kick me in the face this time," Alex joked.

Gia playfully shoved him, making him drop her onto the net before letting go of the bar. They climbed out of the net laughing. However, they soon saw something that made their faces turn to panic.

"Animal Control!" Melman shrieked.


	3. Out of Reach

_Chapter Three: Out of Reach_

Alex immediately dove behind a crate of supplies. The other animals kept their eyes on the five humans approaching the train.

"Did they see me?" Alex whispered to Gia.

Gia kept her eyes on the humans and carefully shook her head.

"No," she whispered, "I don't think so."

She paused.

"Maybe they'll just leave."

"No," Alex whispered back. "They know I'm here."

An irritated look fell across Skipper's face.

"Again?" he grumbled as he saw the officers. "All right, everyone, you know the drill."

All of the animals took on sour expressions as they began packing up the equipment again. Very soon, almost everything was loaded onto the train. Of course, the animal control officers were wary of this and searched harder for their target.

The dogs passed Alex as they took several boxes to the train.

"Opposite side is clear," Frankie told the hiding lion.

Alex nodded his thanks and quickly made his way to safety.

"Do they always have to do this?" he quietly growled to himself as he walked to the train car. "Animal Control is worse than all those crazy girls in Africa! Make one angry and you get an entire flock-!"

He stopped short. It took a fraction of a second to turn tail and run. Unfortunately, it took just as long for the human at the other end of the train to decide to chase him!

"Over here!" he called.

Alex dropped to all fours and tried to run, but felt a snare catch his ankle. He landed hard, but recovered quickly enough to roll over, evading the dart shot at him. This threw the human off guard for long enough for Alex to cut the snare and run like the wind.

Everyone else turned in time to see Alex come bolting out of his hiding place and into plain sight.

"Alex!" Gia shouted. "Run!"

Alex sped off in one direction, and then another, evading snares, nets, and darts alike. He heard the train horn blow.

"Alex!" Gia called. "Hurry! They're about to start the train!"

Alex bolted for the train and jumped in the open car.

**[In slow-motion]**

"FREEDOM!" Alex cried as he was about to touch the floor of the car.

Then he felt a snare snag his ankle again.

"Aw crud!" he breathed.

**[Normal speed again]**

Gia and Marty grabbed his paws and pulled as other officers grabbed the snare to help their comrade.

"Pull! Pull!" Alex shrieked.

Then he looked back at the humans with the snare and saw another preparing to dart him.

"No! Lemme go! Lemme go!" he told his friends.

They did as they were told and Alex flew back, knocking all humans to the ground. He kept running and evading as the train began to move and gain speed. At the last possible moment, he ran for the train and dove into the open car. His friends closed the door behind him.

Gia ran to check him as he lay panting on the floor.

"Are you all right, Alex?" she asked.

"Yeah," Alex gasped. "That was way too close."


End file.
